The Royal Hamilton Light Infantry (Wentworth Regiment)

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The Royal Hamilton Light Infantry (Wentworth Regiment)
Image:Rhli wr.jpg Cap badge of The Royal Hamilton Light Infantry
Active	December 15, 1936–
Country	Canada
Branch	Army
Type	Militia
Role	Light Role
Size	One battalion
Part of	Royal Canadian Infantry Corps
Garrison/HQ	Hamilton
Nickname	The Rileys
Motto	Semper Paratus (Always Ready)
March	Quick: Mountain Rose
Commanders
Colonel in Chief	HRH The Duke of Edinburgh
Honorary Colonel	Colonel James C. Forsyth, CStJ, CD

The Royal Hamilton Light Infantry (Wentworth Regiment) is a Militia unit of the Canadian Forces based at John W. Foote VC Armouries in Hamilton, Ontario.

The regiment has a long history, descending from the 13th Regiment, and has earned thirty-nine battle honours in the two World Wars. They suffered their greatest single day of losses at Dieppe, France on August 19, 1942.^[1] The anniversary of Dieppe is recognized each year by the regiment.

1 Basic facts
2 History 1862–1913
3 Recent activities
4 Alliances
5 Order of precedence
6 Notable soldiers
7 Traditions
8 Regimental History
9 Other links
10 Contact information
11 References

[edit] Basic facts

The RHLI Regimental Colour presented June 30, 1962, by H.E. Rt Hon. Georges Vanier

Name: The Royal Hamilton Light Infantry (Wentworth Regiment), gazetted December 11, 1862 as the 13th Battalion Volunteer Militia (Infantry) Canada
Regimental Church: Church of the Ascension, Anglican, Hamilton, Ontario

[edit] History 1862–1913

The Royal Hamilton Light Infantry has a rich history in Hamilton and Wentworth County. The regiment has two direct antecedents, and indirect descendants include the 1st and 2nd Companies of Volunteer Rifles (Hamilton), formed in 1855, as well as the Volunteer Highland Company (No. 3 Company) formed in 1856.

The RHLI’s earliest direct ancestor is the 13th Battalion of Volunteer Militia established in 1862. The regiment also traces ancestry to the 77th (Wentworth) Battalion of Volunteer Militia. Founded under that name in 1872, it was renamed the 77th Wentworth Regiment in 1900.

The regimental cap badge still bears the supposedly unlucky number from its oldest official antecedent. The 13th Battalion first saw action at the Battle of Ridgeway in 1866 against a force of Fenian invaders from the United States. In 1870, another contingent from the battalion served in Manitoba during the Red River Rebellion.

Between 1899 and 1902, during the Boer War, many members of the 13th served in South Africa as individual augmentees to the 2nd Battalion of The Royal Canadian Regiment and the 1st Canadian Mounted Rifles. Not asked to mobilize for the war, the 13th Battalion remained in Canada and was redesignated 13th Regiment in 1900 and 13th Royal Regiment in 1910.

[edit] History 1914–1938

When the Great War began in 1914, Colonel Sam Hughes, Canada's Minister of Militia, scrapped the original national mobilization plan and solicited militia units to send contingents to the field force known as the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF). As a result, many members of the 13th Royal Regiment went overseas with the First Contingent of the CEF as members of the 4th Battalion, CEF. For the duration of the war, the unit served as a depot regiment, whereby it enlisted, trained, and then supplied men for numerous units, as well as the Royal Flying Corps (82 men) and the Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve (81 men). Among the local units the men were contributed to were the 19th Battalion, CEF (145 men), 36th Battalion, CEF (124 men), 76th Battalion, CEF (506 men), 86th (Machine Gun) Battalion, CEF (600 men), 120th (City of Hamilton) Battalion, CEF (625 men), and the 205th (Tiger) Battalion, CEF (704 men) in the Canadian Expeditionary Force. Of these units, the 120th (City of Hamilton) Battalion had the closest affiliation with the 13th Royal Regiment, and so on May 28, 1916, the Regiment's Colours were formally handed over to the Battalion and subsequently taken overseas. In England, the Colours were placed for safekeeping in Westminster Abbey where they remained until March 5, 1919, when they were returned to former members—the unit having been broken up for drafts in 1917—of the 120th (City of Hamilton) Battalion by the Dean of Westminster.

In the interwar period, Canadian Militia underwent two major reorganizations (in 1920 and again in 1936) as well as minor ones. The Hamilton area militia was no exception and in 1920 the two RHLI antecedents acquired new names: The Royal Hamilton Regiment and The Wentworth Regiment. In 1927, the former became The Royal Hamilton Light Infantry. The final reorganization in 1936 saw all but one company of The Wentworth Regiment amalgamated with the RHLI, and the unit received its current title: The Royal Hamilton Light Infantry (Wentworth Regiment).

[edit] History 1939–1945

Unlike practice in previous conflicts, Canada mobilized existing militia units for overseas service in the Second World War. The Royal Hamilton Light Infantry RHLI was raised as part of the Canadian Active Service Force on September 1, 1939. The existing unit of the Non-Permanent Active Militia (part time reservists) was authorized to recruit in early 1940 and served in Canada for the duration of the war, eventually being known as the 2nd Battalion, RHLI. In November 1940, the CASF battalion was redesignated the 1st Battalion, RHLI.

The 1st Battalion served as part of the 2nd Canadian Infantry Division. The battalion saw combat at Dieppe on August 19, 1942. Of the 582 soldiers who landed that morning, only 102 or 18% were not among the 197 killed, 174 captured or 194 wounded (including 85 also captured).^[2] The Dieppe survivors suffered great physical trauma and psychological distress as a result of the battle and the loss of so many of their friends and comrades in only about eight hours.

The most highly decorated member of the battalion was the Regimental Chaplain. Honorary Captain the Reverend John Foote, who remained at Dieppe with his wounded and captured comrades rather than accept evacuation to Britain, was nominated for the Victoria Cross while still a prisoner of war. The award was made after VE Day.

The 2nd Canadian Division came under command of the newly formed II Canadian Corps in the UK, and after almost two years of training after Dieppe, returning to France after D-Day, where it saw action in the Battle of Normandy from early July on. The unit fought through the Battle of the Scheldt and the Rhineland fighting in early 1945, and completed its war service in Germany.

[edit] History 1945–1999

In the post-war period, the regular battalion was demobilized and the reserve battalion consequently lost its number. It looked like the RHLI would revert to the genteel neglect of the interwar period, until the Cold War interrupted. Some Rileys served in the United Nations Special Force in the Korean War and in 1955 the regiment was represented in the 27th Brigade that served on NATO duty in West Germany.

At home, its barracks were renamed in honour of their VC-winning padre. In 1978, Prince Philip was appointed Colonel-in-Chief of the regiment. The RHLI, formerly part of the Hamilton Militia District, became part of Land Forces Central Area’s 31 Canadian Brigade Group in the 1990s.

The town of Dieppe, France, has set aside a small park at the western end of the esplanade in which it has erected a memorial of its own. Standing in the centre of the Square du Canada (Canada Square), the Dieppe-Canada Monument is a testimony to the long and warm association between Canadians and Normans which has existed since Samuel de Champlain sailed to found New France. The names of people and events which have linked Canada and Normandy over the centuries have been recorded on the monument. Mounted on the wall behind it is a plaque that commemorates the Raid on Dieppe:

On the 19th of August 1942 on the beaches of Dieppe our Canadian cousins marked with their blood the road to our final liberation foretelling thus their victorious return on September 1, 1944. [translation from the French]

[edit] Recent activities

Members of the regiment have augmented Regular Force contingents serving with United Nation forces in the Balkans since the 1990s. They were also on alert for the feared millennial or Y2K crisis which failed to materialize.

The City of Hamilton dedicated Dieppe Memorial Park in the Hamilton Beach neighbourhood on August 19, 2003, the 61st anniversary of the Dieppe Raid. Among the 250 invited guests and 1,000 onlookers were the Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario and 18 of the 24 Riley Dieppe veterans known to survive.

Current parade strength is typical of Canadian militia units at approximately 200-250 all ranks. The RHLI currently consists of two rifle companies B coy(Hamilton) and C coy(Burlington) and an administration company, A coy, also at battalion headquarters in Hamilton. Battalion structures are maintained throughout the militia to allow for expansion in time of war.

[edit] Alliances

United Kingdom - The Rifles

[edit] Order of precedence

Preceded by: The Royal Regiment of Canada	The Royal Hamilton Light Infantry (Wentworth Regiment)	Succeeded by: The Princess of Wales' Own Regiment

[edit] Notable soldiers

Denis Whitaker, a prewar professional football player, rose to command the 1st Battalion of the regiment in the Second World War. After the war, he rose to the rank of Brigadier and published many books on Canadian military history with his wife Shelagh.

[edit] Traditions

Soldiers of the regiment are colloquially known individually and collectively as Rileys.

[edit] Regimental History

Greenhous, Brereton, ed. Semper Paratus: The History of The Royal Hamilton Light (Wentworth Regiment) 1862–1877. Hamilton, Ont.: The RHLI Historical Association, 1977.